Fire resistance and fire testing

Why is fire resistance needed?

Structures need fire resistance for the following reasons:

to satisfy the life safety

requirements
to allow safe evacuation of a building

to enable fire fighting

to protect property

What is fire resistance?

Fire resistance is the time that an element meets specified criteria in a fire resistance test

It is NOT directly related to performance in real building fires

This building got to this state in about 20 minutes

Fire testing: BS476

Part 20 General requirements
Part 21 Load bearing elements Part 22 Non-loadbearing elements

Standard fire tests

Why have standard tests? convenient consistent

But...
physical limitations isolated elements unrepresentative arbitrary failure criteria furnace variability

Test principles
proof testing indicative tests (temperature) structural tests (temperature-deflection)

Natural fires and BS476 test fire

1000

Standard fire "Natural" fires

Temperature

800
600

400

200

Temperature = 20 + 345Log10(8t + 1)
30 60

Time

BS476 Failure criteria

Insulation (I) Load carrying capacity (R)

Integrity(E)

BS476 Parts 20 and 21 Failure Criteria

Insulation (I) Average temperature rise of 140C or maximum temperature rise of 180C
Integrity (E) Gaps or sustained flaming on unexposed side Loadbearing capacity (R) Deflection and rate of deflection limits

Beam tests
Beam details: 4.5m span fully loaded simply supported deflection limit
span/30 span/20 if deflection rate < span2/9000d

Schematic of beam and floor fire tests

Applied Load

Beam test Applied Load

Floor test

Features of beam and floor fire testing

300 C

Deflection (mm)

250 200 150 100 50 0 0 A 20 40 Time (mins) 60 80 B

Features of fire protected beam testing

800
700 Temperature (C)

600
500 400

Temperature (dry)

300
200

Temperature (moist)

100
0 0 20 40 Time (mins) 60 80

BS476 Parts 20 and 21 Failure Criteria (Deflection)

Span = 4500 mm Span/30 = 150
250 Deflection (mm) 200 Span/20 Span/30

Depth = 400 mm Span / (9000 D) = 5.63

Span/20 = 225

150
100

50
0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Time (mins)

Column tests
column details 3m long full load ends built-in axial deflection limit
expansion and axial shortening equal

Schematic of a column fire test

Applied load (constant) End Conditions

Top: BS476 Fixed Europe Offset pin

Bottom BS476 Fixed Europe Fixed

Features of column testing

Displacement

Longitudinal displacement

Transverse displacement

Composite column

Temperature

Typical results
typical failure temperatures about 550oC for columns beam temperatures higher

Summary
Standard tests on isolated members useful Considerable data available for protected and unprotected systems But Proof tests, providing little evidence of true behaviour in realistic conditions